Tramlink to Sutton

[cjohnson]

According to my local residents' association, TfL are soon to open an official consultation on the proposed Tramlink extension to Sutton. Proposed route would be branching off the existing route from Wimbledon at Morden Road to Rosehill via St Helier then to Sutton.

This document from Sutton council has a map of what I assume is the alignment:
https://www.sutton.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=21317&p=0

 

[Domh245]

Hmm, an interesting read. It'll be interesting to see detailed proposals for how they are going to split the new line from the old, because their plan shows it going along Morden Road then skirting along Morden Hall Park. It may well be easier to have the junction after the road bridge then have the trams running through the park next to the road before joining it. As it is, Morden Road is incredibly busy, and I'd dread to think about what the traffic would be like with trams then running on it! I'd also like to see what they are going to do about the roundabout between Morden Hall Road and St Helier's Avenue - That is another place where the traffic is awful, and running a tram line through it will wreak havoc!

 

[jopsuk]

An interesting proposal- this would be the first part of the system to not serve Croydon, which is a big development

 

[theageofthetra]

Beckenham is most definitely not in Croydon!

 

[mister-sparky]

Beckenham is most definitely not in Croydon!

The route is from Croydon though... That's what they meant.

 

[jopsuk]

Indeed. All the current routes serve central Croydon. This route wouldn't. A big change for something that used to be called "Croydon Tramlink"

 

[Robertj21a]

Link no longer available ?

 

[Antman]

Indeed. All the current routes serve central Croydon. This route wouldn't. A big change for something that used to be called "Croydon Tramlink"

It's now 'London Tramlink'.

 

[NorthernSpirit]

If built it would mean that Sutton is connected by light rail despite it being a brough of London that doesn't have either an Underground Line or a Tram system.

 

[cjohnson]

The consultation site has gone live here: http://www.suttonmertontramlink.co.uk/

Looks like its not envisaged that there would be through services from Wimbledon-Sutton (not until Wimbledon station undergoes some serious redevelopment). One option instead is to run the Sutton service to/from South Wimbledon tube, instead of just terminating at Morden Road.

 

[tsr]

If only it could be extended to Tattenham Corner via Banstead and Epsom Downs, which could offer much extra connectivity from the Purley, Banstead and (to some extent) Epsom areas towards Wimbledon and the rest of South West London without travelling via Croydon or using Southern services subject to any knock-on disruption elsewhere on the network. However, I genuinely appreciate that is an idea in the realms of fantasy, most likely due to the foreseeable impracticalities of running from Sutton Station towards the junction with the Epsom Downs branch and the redistribution of passenger flows away from forecast GTR services from Tattenham Corner towards London.

 

[Deerfold]

Link no longer available ?

Works for me. Could have done with a proof reading, though. Royal what hospital?

 

[Clip]

Works for me. Could have done with a proof reading, though. Royal what hospital?

Marsden.

Seems an ok plan from my memory for the area but Im wondering if it is possible for them to at least come round in a loop and join back on somewhere around Croydon itself once again?

 

[Deerfold]

Marsden.

Yes, I know what it's called - and it's not "Marden" (p19).

 

[Clip]

Howay man, being pedantic a bit there about something buried on pg 19 in a document aren't )ou?

 

[Deerfold]

Howay man, being pedantic a bit there about something buried on pg 19 in a document aren't )ou?

I don't think it's too much to expect an official document to have been spellchecked.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

If only it could be extended to Tattenham Corner via Banstead and Epsom Downs, which could offer much extra connectivity from the Purley, Banstead and (to some extent) Epsom areas towards Wimbledon and the rest of South West London without travelling via Croydon or using Southern services subject to any knock-on disruption elsewhere on the network.

I know this is getting a bit off-topic, but if you wanted to do something like that, wouldn't it make more sense/be less work to reroute the existing heavy rail Epsom Downs line into Tattenham Corner, and then run the combined route as a circular line back into London?
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Looks like its not envisaged that there would be through services from Wimbledon-Sutton (not until Wimbledon station undergoes some serious redevelopment). One option instead is to run the Sutton service to/from South Wimbledon tube, instead of just terminating at Morden Road.

Hmm, not running into Wimbledon is going to kill usage a bit.

Even if people change at Morden Road to the existing trams for Wimbledon, I can see that causing problems because most trams already arrive at Wimbledon completely rammed during peak hours - I doubt there's any capacity to absorb passengers from the Sutton route as well. Having said that, I can well understand that without a redevelopment at Wimbledon there's not really any way to run more trams there.

In the circumstances, going to South Wimbledon is perhaps the most sensible proposal. A hugely expensive ideal might be to run to South Wimbledon and from there to Wimbledon (tunnelling?) but I imagine that's too expensive to be considered.

Very welcome and good news that the proposed extension has got to this stage anyway!

 

[12CSVT]

I know this is getting a bit off-topic, but if you wanted to do something like that, wouldn't it make more sense/be less work to reroute the existing heavy rail Epsom Downs line into Tattenham Corner, and then run the combined route as a circular line back into London?

Unless they knocked down an entire housing estate it wouldn't be possible. And with some of the houses with price tags not far off seven figures - not a cat in hell's chance of it ever happening.

 

[Busaholic]

Given that Boris has committed himself in manifestoes for the last two mayoral elections to a Crystal Palace route requiring comparatively little expenditure or upheaval, and it is no nearer getting anywhere, don't hold your breath. What may be more significant, politically, is that Sutton was the only London borough in the May local elections where the the LibDems didn't lose ground so this could be a pre-General Election move.

Used to spend a lot of time as a teenager in the Morden area and watched the buses pour into Morden Station forecourt from Sutton and disgorge loads of passengers into the tube-, noticeable there was never a Sutton to Wimbledon direct bus, but there was a frequent Sutton to Tooting, which I would respectfully put forward as a better prospect than Souyh Wimbledon.

 

[Feathers44]

Interesting. This appears to be just the two boroughs consulting rather than having any TfL involvement so presumably it's a tool for lobbying purposes rather than carrying any real promise. I'm not holding my breath to see a result.

Geographically, I don't see an option but to take the connection off beyond the road bridge and through the park. Without demolishing quite a few things they're not going to access Dorset Road very easily (even if they are at the right level to do so - I can't remember).

Interestingly, the quick look I've taken seems to ignore the detour through the middle of Morden to the bus 'depot' outside the station that previous references have mentioned. From what I understood, this was a pretty high priority for Merton if this scheme was to go ahead. Perhaps it's mentioned elsewhere and I'll find it when I dig into the detail a bit. Someone's already mentioned the possible Marsden extension so I assume I'll find that buried somewhere too.